Delia Cai offers some of her own family tradition with a family dumpling recipe from the garden.
Delia Cai knows popular culture. The Illinois-raised and New York-based writer and editor has lent her voice to columns, essays, a popular newsletter, and a hit novel titled Central Places. Beyond the current moment, Cai has an even deeper connection with her own Chinese heritage. Case and point: her long-lasting love of her Grandma Connie’s recipe for jiaozi. This dumpling was passed down to her as a child, while she was the resident “gyoza-wrapping apprentice” during family gatherings on Sunday. She remembers folding the Chinese chives grown by her mother in the Cai-family vegetable garden into the doughy wrapping. Now, when she makes them on her own, she substitutes chopped scallions, their scent bringing her home. “As with all family traditions, I’ve learned, there’s always room to add your own little touch,” she tells Family Style.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of gyoza wrappers (If you buy them frozen, let them thaw out in the fridge overnight.)
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 healthy handful of Chinese chives (or 1 bunch of scallions)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
Directions:
- Mix the ground pork, 1/4 cup water, ginger powder, salt, soy sauce, and eggs together in a large bowl.
- Chop the chives or scallions up as finely as possible, then add to the meat mixture. Stir well.
- In a shallow bowl, pour in the other 1/4 cup of water. Dip your finger into the water and use it to wet the edges around a gyoza wrapper (as if you’re tracing a circle around the outermost rim of the wrapper). This is the “glue” that will hold the wrapper together.
- Put a teaspoon of filling in the center of the wrapper.
- Fold the edges of the wrapper together. This is the hardest part! You can absolutely try to get a few fancy ruffles in there, but here’s another pro tip from childhood: You are totally allowed to fold the wrapper in half—like a half-moon. Just make sure that the filling is sealed inside. It’s going to taste great no matter what.
- Repeat with all the wrappers until you’re either out, or you’ve used up all the filling.
- Drizzle a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in a pan and fry the dumplings until they’re golden-brown on the bottom and puffy, and everything is cooked through, about 6-8 minutes.
- Enjoy with more soy sauce on the side!